Smirk
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: Set shortly after 5.5, Jean has a moment of frustration about a certain facial expression she keeps seeing.


**Smirk**

One more smirk and she was going to wring someone's neck.

The whispers and sideways glances were one thing. They had made her feel small and hurt and ashamed, but she stood tall and ignored them. It's what she'd always done.

But the smirking. That was new. The self-satisfied, knowing looks from nearly every person who actually knew that she and Lucien were engaged.

Charlie found out first. Which only made sense. He was living with them. They didn't even have to tell him. He saw the ring, saw the new comfort in their affection with each other, and he knew. And now any time he saw them standing less than a foot apart, he would smirk.

Matthew was the first person they told. Actually, he didn't even let them tell him properly. He nodded and said something facetious. He knew better than most how desperately she and Lucien had longed to get to this point. And he had smirked.

Patrick bloody Tyneman, as Lucien often referred to him, had found out quite by accident. And at the time, he had been so sweet and dear and kind. Jean couldn't have possibly expressed how much she appreciated his reaction. She had needed it more than she knew. But now, whenever she and Lucien were together in public, Patrick, who knew much more than he ever should, would smirk. As though knowing they were engaged meant something more lascivious was going on. Which it wasn't. But that smirk insinuated otherwise.

Rose Anderson, bless her, had probably found out from Charlie long before she actually saw the ring and spent time with Jean and Lucien at home. That terrifying night when Jean had foolishly gotten herself prettied up to go to Lucien's bedroom…Rose's smirk had put an end to that.

Alice Harvey, even, when she was paying enough attention to remember that she did know that Jean and Lucien were engaged, would get that little smirk when she looked at them, or if either of them mentioned the other. She meant well, of course, and had always been a lovely friend to them, but even so…

Jean couldn't bear that knowing smirking smile on any of them. She never wanted to see it from anyone again ever. It didn't make her feel sad or embarrassed. It inexplicably made her angry.

She arrived home after running into Bill Hobart, of all people, smirking about Jean buying a new shirt for Lucien, since she hadn't wanted to try to mend the one he'd been stabbed in. Jean had been very short with Bill and had returned home in a huff. Her anger didn't dissipate during her journey. She slammed the front door behind her and threw her keys into the side table before roughly hanging up her jacket.

Lucien heard the racket and came out of his study. "Jean? What's the matter?"

She launched into her complaints, unable to stop herself. "One more bloody person looking at me and…SMIRKING! I don't' want to hide our engagement, especially from our friends, and I don't care what all the rest of the world thinks about the propriety of it, but why does everyone insist on making that same infuriating face!? As though they know something about us! Our relationship belongs to you and me, and it's ours, and I won't have it be sullied by those insinuating bloody smirks!" she shouted.

Lucien was unprepared for the outburst. He placed his hands on her arms soothingly. "It is ours. It will always be ours. Nothing anyone ever does will take it away from us ever again. I promise you that, Jean. And if it helps at all, I don't think anyone means any harm. Our friends are just happy for us."

"They can keep it to themselves," she muttered bitterly.

"Now, you don't mean that. Besides, they'll all be there when we do finally get married. Then everyone will know. And we'll get all the same sordid looks about the wedding night," he pointed out.

Jean groaned loudly. "Oh no, I hadn't even thought about the wedding night!"

"Hadn't you?" He smiled suggestively.

She immediately realized what she'd said and blushed. "You know what I mean."

"Well I do hope you'll think about our wedding night. I'm quite looking forward to it."

Jean looked up at him and signed. "Now, why is it that I don't mind at all when you smirk? Actually, I quite like it."

"Good. Because I don't think I can stop." He placed a quick peck on her lips. "Try not to worry about the others. It will be old news before you know it."

She sighed, "I suppose you're right. And I suppose I should apologize to Bill Hobart for being annoyed with him today."

"Bill? Oh, don't bother about him. He needs to be reprimanded more often."

Jean laughed and put the whole mess out of her mind. She had Lucien's new shirts to iron and put away for him. She did like putting away his clothes. Going into his room, being amongst his things. It made her smirk a bit to herself.


End file.
